Buffing-machine.



'. A. THURSTON.

BUFFING MACHINE. APPLICATION FILI-:v MAR. 7, 1913.

1,076,468. Patented o@t.21,1913.

' rra FREDRICK A. THURSTON, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

BUFFING-MACHINE.

intense.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented @et 21, 1913.

Application led March 7, 1913. Serial No. 752,536.

To all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, FREDRICK A. THURS- 'roN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of ltflassachusetts7 have invented new and useful improvements in Buf`ling-`Viachines7 of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a machine for bufling articles of sheet material and is especially adapted to buff shoe counters. Said shoe counters are made of dierent materials, such as leatherboard, and they are hard and diflicultto bring` to an even beveled edge. They are, therefore, first submitted to a skiving machine which skives olf the edge of the article at an angle and then are subsequently run through a bufling machine to still further reduce the edge of the article in thickness and to smooth off the roughnesses left by the skiving machine.

The invention relates particularly to the construction of the roll or movable feed member whereby the counter is held in contact with a sandpaper covered buliing roll also constituting a feed roll.

The invention consists in the combination and arrangement of parts set forth in the following specication and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure l is an end elevation of a pair of feed rolls embodying my invention, the table upon which the counters are placed preliminary to feeding them between the rolls being shown in section. Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation taken on line 22 of Fig. 1 showing a counter in position between the rolls. Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3--3 of Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a plan view of the counter after it has been submitted to the bufling operation. Fig. 5 is a section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

In the drawings, 6 and 7 constitute a pair of feed rolls which are rotated in the direction of the arrows thereon by suitable mechanism. rlhe feed roll 6 is covered with an abrasive material, such as sandpaper 8, and constitutes not only a feed roll but a buffing roll as well.

9 is a table upon which are placed the counters preparatory to feeding them between the feed rolls.

The feed roll 7 constitutes a rotary feed member embodying a holder 10 which comprises a center piece 11 with segmental blocks 12 fast thereto. These segmental blocks are formed of wood and each has in its outer face a recess 13 adapted to receive a pad 14 of rubber; these pads have vulcanized on their inner faces pieces of textile material 15, such as canvas, and the canvas is fastened by adhesive material to the segmental wooden blocks 12, thus firmly fastening the rubber pads 14 to the segmental blocks 12. There is a space 16 between the inner faces of the pads 14 and the outer surface of the holder or of the wooden blocks 12 forming a portion of said holder. This space 1G extends partly across the feed member 7. When in position it will be seen that the rubber' pads 14 are curved on the arc of a circle concentric with the center of the holder 10 and that said rubber pads form the periphery of the feed member 7, they being so constructed and positioned as to engage the periphery of the roll 6.

The roll 6 is held in frictional engagement with the feed member 7 by springs in a manner well known to those skilled in the art. The segmental blocks 12 are det-achably fastened to the center piece 11 by screws 17, thus making it possible to replace the blocks when they become worn.

The rubber pads 14 are made of softer material on one side thereof than on the other, the part 18 being of substantially softer rubber than the part 19 (see Fig. 2). The object of this construction of the pad iS to allow the thick portion of the counter 20 to sink into the pad while the thin feather edge of the counter is held firmly against the abrasive surface of the roll 8 during the bufng operation, that is, the end portions 21 of the counter 20 are skived on a skiving machine before the counter is brought to the buffing machine and are skived at an angle or beveled, as seen in Fig. 5, and in the machine of my invention the beveled end 21 is run between the rolls 6 and 7 in order to buff the Same. lf the rubber pad consisted of rubber of the same resiliency or yielding nature, and that resiliency comparatively stiff, the thick portion of the beveled end of the counter would be forced against the abrasive surface of the roll 6 in such a manner as to cause a shoulder to be cut into the surface of the counter and across the same substantially on the line 22 (Fig. 4).; on the other hand if the rubber pads were all of a soft rubber the feather edge of the counter would sink into ,the rubber and not be i buffed. It is necessary that the feather edge of the beveled end of the counter should beheld up firmly to its work against the buif:r

ing roll 6, while the rubber should yield to allow the thick portion of the beveled end to sink thereinto during the bufling operation, and this result is accomplished in such a manner as to leave a straight beveled su-ry face 21 by having the portion 19 made of hard rubber `and the portion 18 of softy rubber.

Many of the counters are formed of ina.

terial which is stiff and uny-ield'ing and will not bend laterally thereof so that as one ofj said counters is fed between the rolls it is' .desirable that there should be a vspace 16 between the inner surface of the pad 14 and the outer surface of the portion 12 -of the holder 10,1so lthat this space allows the rubber to yield bodily downward as illustrated in Fig. 2 when a counter is passing lthrough l between the rolls and :thus prevents the buf- 'Y into the space 16 allows the counter to oe counters are placed upon the table 9 in a4 ing roll 6 from cutting into the opposite' edges of the counter during the buiiing operation. The pad 14- yield'ing downwardly cupy the space previously occupied by the outer surface of the pad and thus as they counter approaches the roll 6 during thel rotation of the feed member 7 the edge of the counter when it first strikes the roll 6v will not be cut into, but will be buifed properly, and the same is true of that edge of the counterV which contacts last with the buffing roll 6, Athe counter conforming, as a whole, substantially to the periphery of the i way across the feed member 7, it being un-.

desirable that `there should be a space between the pad and the block 12 beneath the thin end of the counter, for the reason that said thin end must be held firmly up against i the buting roll by the feed member 7 during the buffino' o aeration or else the butlino roll tu 1 7 'C3 will have no appreciable eect upon the feather edged end of said counter.

rlhe general operation of the mechanisIIl hereinbefore described is as follows: The

manner well known to those skilled in .the art and fed in between the rolls 6 and 7; the end portion 21 of the counter passing between the rolls :6 and 7 is .buffed by the abrasive surface 8 of Vthe roll 6 and is pressed into the soft portion 18 of the rub.- ber pad Lduring this oper-ation, while the soft portion also yields toward the center of the feed member 7 during said operati-ion for the purpose hereinbefore set forth. rlhe result of the combined yielding of the soft rubber portion 18 ofthe padflt and the bodily yielding downwardly of said rubber is that the portion 21 is buifed evenly and smoothly throughout its entire extent andwithout any shoulder being eut at its opposite edges between the portion 2O and the portion 21. The counters may pass through fa single pair of rolls by reversing the counter end for end, or they may pass through a pair of rolls and the two ends be bufled si.- multaneously 'in a manner similar 5to-that illustrated in my Patent No. 1,047,3851of December 17, 1912.

.outer surface of the lblock 12, but as the rub.- ;ber wears away the outer surface thereof becomes concentric with the outersurface .of lthe block 12. After these two surfaces have become even, one with the other, they wear away evenly during the 4operation of Ythe machine and the roll 6 is kept pressed against the feed member 7 by springs in a imanner well known to those skilled inthe art as illustrated and described in my said Patent No. 1,047,335.

While l .prefer to form the .blocks 12 of wood so that they may wear away as the rubber wears by the action of the abrasive materia-l on the surface thereof, still otherr ymaterials may be used, such as fiber Ior leatherboard, without departing from the spirit of my invention, so long as said ma- ;terial is non-metallic er of such a nature that it will be worn away as hereinbefore described by the actionof the abrasive ma- ;terial thereon.

Having thus described my invention, -what l claim and desire by Letters Patent to secure is:

1. A rotary feed member for butiing ma chines having a yielding pad on its periphery, one portion of which is composed of substantially harder material than the other.

2. A rotary feed member for buffing machines having a yielding pad on its per-iphery, the portion of said pad at one side of the periphery of said roll rbeing formed'of harder material than that portion laterally adjacent thereto on the .other side of the periphery vof said roll.

3. A rotary feed member for buffing machines having, in combination, a holder with a block fast .thereto and a .pad fast to said block and curved. to form .an arc of a circle constituting the periphery of said rotary member. Y

4f. A rotary feed member for 4boiling ma chines having, in combination, a holder with a segmental block fast thereto, said block having a recess in its outer face and a pad of rubber located in said recess fast to lsaid block and cur-ved to form an larc of a circle When the feed member 7 is first .used the periphery or outer surface l,of the `pad 141 projects slightly 'beyond the constituting the periphery of said rotary member.

5. A rotary feed member for bufling machines having, in combination, a holder with a segmental block fast thereto, a pad of rubber curved to form an arc of a circle constituting the periphery of said rotary member and a strip of textile material vulcaniZed to the inner face of said pad, said textile material fastened by adhesive material to said block.

6. A rotary feed member for buflng machines having, in combination, a holder, a pad of rubber fast to said holder and curved to form an arc of a circle, there being a space extending partly across said holder between the inner surface of said pad and the outer surface of said holder.

7. A buiiing machine having, in combination, a pair of feed rolls, one of said rolls covered with abrasive material, the other having a yielding pad on its periphery, a portion of said pad at one side of the periphery of said roll being formed of harder material than that portion of the pad laterally adjacent thereto on the other side of the periphery of said roll.

9. A bufHng machine having, in combination, a pair of feed rolls, one of said rolls covered with abrasive material, the other consisting of a holder with a segmental block detachably fastened thereto, said block having a recess in its outer face and a rubber pad located in said recess, said rubber pad being softer on one side thereof than on the side laterally adjacent thereto. and there being a space between said rubber pad and block extending partly thereacross.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

FREDRICK A. THURSTON.

Witnesses SYDNEY E. TArT, ANNIE J. DAILEY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

